The Willow Pattern

IX

Judge Dee was roused from his musings by the entrance of Tao Gan and the maid. Tao Gan motioned her to wait by the door, then he came up to the judge and said in a low voice:

'The maid hated Yee, sir. She has quite a story to tell about him.' After a quick glance at the corpse, he asked keenly: 'Have you any idea yet how it happened, sir?'

'The murderer was either a close friend or a person of low social status,' the judge said slowly. 'That much I deduce from the fact that Yee, although he personally admitted his murderer, did not offer him a chair or a cup of tea. After Yee had brought him up to the gallery here, he himself sat down, drank a cup of tea and had some candied ginger — if he hadn't done so already before, that is, while waiting for his visitor. Then there developed a violent quarrel, perhaps even a hand to hand fight; you see that whip on the floor, and the broken flower vase. Yee screamed, and the murderer killed him with one blow from a heavy blunt instrument. Judging by the shape and nature of the wound, I think it was a thick club with a rounded head. There was a ferocious force behind that blow, Tao Gan. The murderer must have been a man of great bodily strength. That is all I can say thus far. Presently we shall search for clues.' He beckoned the maid, went to the couch and sat down on the edge.

The maid came up to them without a glance at the dead man, and stood herself before the judge, with folded arms. Seeing her surly face, Judge Dee asked affably:

'What is your name?'

'Cassia, sir,' she replied curtly.

'How long have you been working here, Cassia?'

'As long as I can remember. I was born and bred in this house.'

'I see. Is your mistress's mind permanently deranged?'

'No sir. It's only when she gets upset that she begins to mix up past and present.' Having thrown a disdainful look at the corpse in the chair, she resumed in her grating voice: 'It was all his fault. He was a mean, cruel devil who fully deserved to come to a sticky end. A pity he was killed out­right. He should've suffered, as he made others suffer, and especially his poor wife.'

'His wife described him as a great and good man,' the judge said coldly. 'It was her love for him that cleared her mind for one brief moment when, kneeling before me, she begged me to bring his murderer to justice.'

She shrugged her broad, bony shoulders.

'I tell you that the master was a dissolute lecher. Used to have the lowest sluts from the gutter up here, nearly every day. And what for? To watch them doing their dirty dances — if you care to call those filthy pranks dances — on that platform there,' Seeing that the judge was about to make an angry remark, she added quickly: 'The master got all kinds of nasty diseases from those women, which was just what he deserved. But he passed them on to his poor wife, and that's what ruined her health. But he didn't care. Not he!’

'Your master's body is hardly cold yet, woman!' Judge Dee burst out angrily. 'Do you realize that his spirit may still be present here, and hear all those terrible things you are saying?'

'I am not afraid of ghosts. This old, evil house is full of them. You can hear them wail, on stormy nights. The ghosts of the men and women maimed or tortured in this same gallery, or starved to death in the dungeons.'

'You are referring to things that happened one hundred years ago,' the judge said with disdain.

'His father and his grandfather were as bad as him. Savage beasts, that's what they were, all of them. But I needn't go back to the past to prove that. Oh no! Six years ago the master whipped a bondmaid to death, here, on that same couch you are sitting on, sir.'

'Have you found a record of that case?' Judge Dee asked Tao Gan sharply.

'No sir. The only charge ever brought against Yee was that of usury. And he was aquitted.'

'You are telling a pack of lies, woman!’ the judge barked.

'It's the truth, sir. Have your men dig up the cluster of bamboos on the south side of the back yard and you'll find her bones. But who in this house would have wanted to accuse the master? Our parents served his father, our grandparents his grandfather. He was a bad man, but he was our master. Heaven willed it so.'

Judge Dee gave her a thoughtful look. After a brief pause he asked, pointing at the whip on the floor:

'Have you seen that thing before?'

She sniffed.

'Of course! One of the master's favourite toys.'

'What about Mr Hoo?' the judge asked again. 'Is he a man of the same ilk as your master?'

Her impassive face suddenly came to life.

'Don't you dare to slander the Honourable Hoo!' she cried. 'He is a fine, straightforward gentleman. A famous hunter and a great warrior, as his forebears were. And now, now he isn't even allowed to wear a sword! That silly ruling is an insult to a man like him.'

'He could have applied for a commission in the Imperial army,' Judge Dee remarked dryly.

'A commission! The heads of the Hoo family were always field-marshals, sir.'

The judge took his fan from his sleeve. The close air in the gallery was becoming oppressive. He fanned himself for a while, then asked abruptly:

'Who killed your master?'

'A newcomer,' she replied at once. 'No one in the "old world" would have raised his hand against the marquis. Must have been some whore's tout the master let into the house tonight.'

'Has your master had many visitors, lately?'

'No sir. Before the sickness came, the master used to have loose women and their touts here nearly every night. But after some of the servants had died of the sickness, those wretches didn't want to come any more. Mr Mei and Mr Hoo called occasionally. Mr Hoo lives right opposite, across the canal.'

Judge Dee snapped his fan shut. 'By the way,' he asked, 'who was the physician attending upon your mistress?'

'Doctor Lew. A good doctor, they say. But a lecher, of the same sort as the master. He often took part in the parties up here in the gallery. Took part in them up to a point, that is. Everyone knows that Lew can't have a woman.'

'You had better watch that poisonous tongue of yours!' the judge said angrily. 'There's a law on slander. Go and send your son here with a new candle.'

'Very well, sir.'

She went to the door in her ungainly stride.

Judge Dee pensively stroked his moustache.

'Astounding!' he muttered. 'This odd mixture of hate and blind, unquestioning loyalty!'

'It was typical of the time of upheaval, sir, one hundred years ago.' Tao Gan remarked. 'Our empire being then divided into a number of warring states, there was no central authority, no rule of law. For their livelihood, for their very lives, indeed, the people had to rely completely upon their feudal masters. Having a bad master was better than having none — which meant being enslaved by the barbarian invaders, or starving to death.'

The judge nodded. Then he asked, vexedly:

'If Yee was really such a perverted degenerate, why didn't Merchant Mei draw my attention to his doings?'

Tao Gan shrugged.

'Mei was a man of progressive ideas, but he was born and bred in the "old world", sir.'

'And Yee will have taken good care to keep his excesses inside these four walls. In any case, that maid would rather die than give us a clue to his murderer. Her son might tell us more, though. Being so young, he is probably less obsessed by the prejudices of the past. What have you got there?'

Tao Gan had stooped and picked up a small object from the floor, beside the heavy leg of the couch. He showed it to the judge in the palm of his hand: an ear-pendant consisting of a cheap red stone in a simple silver setting. The judge felt the trinket with the tip of his forefinger.

'There's a trace of blood on the fastening hook, not yet quite dried out. There was a woman here tonight, Tao Gan!'

The young doorman came in with a burning candle. While placing it on the table he carefully avoided looking at the dead man.

'Come here!' Judge Dee told him. 'I want to talk to you.'

The youngster's broad, flat face turned a sickly pale. Sweat pearled on his low forehead. The judge concluded that his first impression had been indeed correct: the boy was badly frightened. He asked harshly:

'Who was the woman who came here tonight?'

The boy gave a violent start.

'She ... she couldn't have done it, sir!' he stammered. 'She was so young, she ...'

'No, I don't think she murdered your master,' Judge Dee said, in a kind voice now. 'But she may prove an important witness. So you'd better tell all you know about her. For her sake too.'

The youngster swallowed a few times before he replied:

'She came for the first time ten days ago, sir, after the master had sent the servants away. He didn't want my mother or me to see them, he——'

'Them, you say?' the judge interrupted.

'Yes sir. There was a man with her every time. I ... I spied on them once. Because I had heard her sing, here in the gallery... . Such a sweet, beautiful voice! I wanted so much to see what she looked like, so——'

'What about that man?' the judge asked impatiently.

The youngster hesitated. He wiped his face with his sleeve, then he began slowly:

'Well, I couldn't see him clearly, sir, the courtyard being so badly lighted. He was a tout or ... a bully, I suppose, for he was heavily built, a real giant. And he carried a hand drum. But her I saw clearly sir. She was very young, and such a sweet, innocent face. Yet she must have danced for the master, for I heard the drum... .'

'Did she and her companion come here tonight?'

'I couldn't say sir, really. As I told you already, I was quite busy in the kitchen, helping mother to clean up.'

'All right. You may go.'

As soon as the boy had left, Judge Dee told Tao Gan:

'Those two did come tonight, as proved by the ear-pendant. So that maid Cassia was apparently right when she said it probably was a tout who had killed Yee. The whip suggests that Yee wanted to beat the girl, and the tout would not stand for that. One is wont to despise those men, Tao Gan, and their profession is certainly not a very commendable one. But they too are human beings, and they often have a genuine affection for the women they protect. It is quite possible that the man flew into a rage, wrenched the whip out of Yee's hand, then beat in his head with the iron club those people often carry.'

Tao Gan nodded.

'A strong professional bully would fit the picture all right, sir. It also explains why Yee didn't offer him a chair or a cup of tea.'

'And since they had been here before,' Judge Dee added, 'they knew they could slip outside unnoticed by the small door in the gate that would lock automatically behind them. To locate that dancer shouldn't be too difficult, Tao Gan. She must belong to one of the brothels in the old city.' He paused. Then he doubtfully shook his head and resumed: 'Strange, I had a foreboding that this murder would prove to be uncommonly difficult to solve... . And now it turns out to be quite a simple case, after all.' Rising, he added: 'Well, let's search for further clues now. You take the table, the couch and the platform, and I'll have a look at the rest of the gallery.'

He walked over to the portico. The stench of the burnt-out candle still hung in the hot air, so he raised the bamboo curtain of the window on the left, and fastened it with the bands attached to the top. Putting his hands on the broad sill and leaning outside, he discovered that the portico was in fact a kind of balcony, jutting out over the canal, and supported on long, slender pillars rising up from the black water. On the left was a high brick wall, descending into the canal at a slight angle, with a square watchtower at its end. Further along, the low bank was covered with small trees and thick shrubbery. Beyond it he could see the high central arch of the Halfmoon Bridge. To the right the steep outer wall of the mansion terminated in another square watchtower. The canal made a sharp bend there, so the rest of its course was concealed from his view.

He threw a casual look at the two-storeyed house on the opposite bank of the canal, in the bight. So that was the house of Yee's friend Hoo, 'the marshal'! It was built in the elegant style of a country villa, the curved roof-points of its upper storey standing out against the lowering sky. There was a narrow balcony above a row of willow trees; their long branches hung limply down. All the windows were dark. The judge had never had a close look at Hoo's villa while crossing the Halfmoon Bridge, for seen from there it was half concealed by the tall trees that grew on its left. Yet he had the distinct feeling that the details were familiar.

The dank smell of stagnant water and rotting plants made him turn away from the window. Tao Gan was bent over the table, putting together a few porcelain shards. His thin lieutenant looked up and said:

'I think that Yee tried to defend himself, sir. These are the shards of the flower vase. With the rest of the stuff here they tell a fairly clear story — thanks to the sticky ginger syrup, which is a beautiful clue to work with.' When the judge had come up to the table, Tao Gan went on: 'After his visitors had arrived, Yee sat down at the table, and munched a few pieces of ginger. There's syrup on the fingers of his right hand, and a stain on the tip of his sleeve. Then Yee must have taken the whip, for I found syrup on its butt. The murderer became aggressive, and wrenched the whip from Yee's hand, as you suggested already, sir. Or perhaps Yee just let it drop. However that may be, Yee then looked for a weapon to defend himself with, and grabbed the flower vase. As you see from the shards I put together, it was a vase with a long thin neck and a heavy base. But the murderer struck him down before he could use it, for there is no trace of blood on any of the shards. Yee let the vase drop, and it broke to pieces on the floor. We may deduce that Yee grabbed the vase after he had dropped the whip, because two larger shards were lying on top of the thongs of the whip'

'Good reasoning!’ Judge Dee said. 'But how do you know that Yee took the flower vase in his hand? It could have been pushed or have fallen from the table accidentally during the scuffle, couldn't it?'

'Have a look at this shard, sir.'

Tao Gan picked up one larger shard and held it close to the candle. With his thin, bony forefinger he pointed at a brown, sticky smudge. "This shard formed part of the slender neck of the vase. Why should Yee have grabbed that vase if not to defend himself, sir?'

'Excellent!' the judge said with a pleased smile. 'Ha, that, of course, is what Hoo's villa opposite reminded me of! The Willow Pattern!' He pointed at the dozen or so pieces of porcelain which Tao Gan had neatly fitted together on the table top. They showed the picture of a villa on the waterside, lined by a row of willow trees. The upper storey had a narrow balcony. It had been a good antique piece, the blue design had been painted on in delicate brush strokes.

'All the pieces are there,' Tao Gan said. 'It should be possible to mend the vase. I looked under the couch, sir, and searched the floor. But without result.'

'Let's walk all along the gallery, and have a look together. Then we must leave, for we have a lot of other work to do, Tao Gan! The search for the dancer and her tout we can leave to the Municipal Tribunal. Here, you take the floorspace in front of the pillars.'

Judge Dee began with the floor of the portico. Suddenly he stooped. A crumpled piece of white cloth was lying against the socle of the third pillar. Squatting down, he called out: 'Bring the candle, Tao Gan!’

Together they examined his find. It was a square piece of thin white cloth, a large handkerchief or scarf. In the centre was a red stain.

'That's where the murderer wiped his weapon, sir!' Tao Gan said eagerly. 'Or his hands, perhaps.' He took a piece of oil-paper from his sleeve. 'Here, let me take it up, sir.'

He carried it to the table, and they scrutinized it closely.

'Not a mark, nothing!' Tao Gan said, disappointed.

Judge Dee felt the four corners with his forefinger.

'That's odd,' he said slowly. 'The bloodstain in the middle has nearly dried, but the comers of the cloth feel moist. With water. And look! This is the small leaf of a water-weed sticking to the seam! Wrap this handkerchief up and take it along, Tao Gan. It may be important evidence.' All of a sudden the judge raised his hands and examined them carefully. 'That's very strange!’ he exclaimed. 'When I went to open the bamboo roll curtain just now, I noticed that the windowsill in the portico were covered with dust. Later, when leaning out of the left window, I put my hands on the sill. But there isn't a speck of dust on my fingers!'

He quickly stepped up to the left window. Beckoning Tao Gan to hold the candle close, he bent and peered at the red-lacquered surface of the broad sill. 'Thoroughly wiped clean,' he announced. 'And the sills of the other three windows are black with dust.' He turned to the first window and leaned outside; so far that Tao Gan solicitously grabbed his sleeve.

'Look!’ Judge Dee cried out. 'A narrow ledge runs along the balcony, just above the pillars that support it. Do you see that green stalk sticking to the edge? That's a water-weed, Tao Gan.' Righting himself he said quietly: 'This means that someone swam across the canal, and entered here by climbing up one of the pillars.'

The judge went to the table, angrily swinging his sleeves. He pulled out the second chair, and sat down heavily. Crossing his arms he looked up sombrely and said: 'My foreboding was right, after all, Tao Gan. This is very far indeed from being a simple, straightforward case.'